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Steel is used to build cars, wind turbines and bridges and there are currently about 5000 different types of steel available on the market. But how can steel producers guarantee that a particular steel will always exhibit the same high quality? Up until now experienced experts analyzed material samples under the microscope and carefully compared the results against reference images. But classifying materials in this way is not free from errors. Using machine learning techniques, computer scientists and materials scientists in Saarbrücken have now developed a method that is much more accurate and objective than conventional quality control procedures. Their results have just been published in Scientific Reports, the open-access mega-journal associated with the highly respected scientific journal Nature.